Miscellaneous October Viewings.

The blog does often serve as a means to archive my experiences in television and film. Othertimes, like this week, I feel as if I preserve memories. My son wanted to watch Monster House, so I we did. Three  kids, on Halloween Eve and Day, must dry and destroy a misanthropic grumpy neighbor's 45 year old house or it will continue to "eat" anyone or thing (animals like a neighborhood dog don't fare well either) that intrudes upon its yard or porch! Victims include a boozy high school punk named Bones, two keystone cops who never take the kids seriously, and the aforementioned pooch that happens upon the grass. While the human characters favor claymation design, the real animated effects star of the feature is the titular monster who wooden boards favor ragged, sharp teeth, windows sinister Amityville eyes, and carpet a rolled out red tongue! Eventually by the end of the film, in the impressive climatic action sequence, giant trees are the house's arms and hands as the monster moves its way after the kids...hoping to use dynamite to blow it up, the kids will also commandeer a ground excavator to combat the menace. Perhaps the best sequence comes when the kids are trapped inside a police car as the house tries to gobble it up after tree limbs lift it off the ground, along with their peril and escape from its inside, locating the concrete grave of the owner's carnival obese wife, often a victim of egging and ridicule. Good use of Halloween as the neighborhood prepares for trick-or-treating. The two boys crushing on the visiting prep school girl and her tolerating their typical kids-being-kids antics, often embarrassing themselves and her, has its charms. Fun babysitter humor with Maggie Gyllenhaal voicing a goth who dates Bones and has a contentious relationship with star lead kid, DJ.

Much like Monday evening, my son chose Tuesday, The Mummy (1959). I have written at length about it on the blog. There is this one moment, though, where Pastell's Mehemet Bey sends Kharis to kill John Banning's family friend, the second behind John's father to enter Ananka's tomb. It's a close shot of Lee's eyes, the bandages muddied and uniform, coroded and structured to fit exactly to the skull features. I looked over at my son and impressed told him, "He sure does look menacing there, doesn't he?" Despite Lee's towering height, its his approach of immediate, encroaching dangerous threat and brute strength that follow those eyes that this viewing made most of its impression. Cushing outsmarts him with fortunate convenience of a wife that looks like Ananka. Lee breaking through the window to Cushing's home, taking two shotgun blasts, is my #1 favorite scene. #2 is Lee bending bars to Elder Banning's hospital room, breaking in and strangling him. Unlike shambling Chaney, Lee's one hand strong arm choke is boss.

The Howling II [Whatever Additional Surname You So Desire]

Lee is practically the only reason I can tolerate this. I must have had a good viewing of this in 2007 because I rated it 5/10 on my user comments and gave it some positive words. Yeah, not Wednesday evening. Danning's assets are always high up the list when you study its cult following, and she can make a scene ummm pop. But the supposed werewolf eroticism is more laughable than hot. Poor Lee tries to remain professional and serious even as Brown, as grieving brother from Montana who visits LA to attend his reporter sister's funeral, and McEnroe, as LA reporter accompanying both of them to Transylvania to hunt Danning and her werewolf brood, seem to drag him down with their poor performances. For whatever reason--hackjob editing and poverty row werewolves--I had such a bad taste tonight. I have often responded with different reactions to this depending on my mood each time. Tonight was probably not the night to watch it. The romantic scenes of McEnroe and Brown are wretched. And werewolf orgy? *

Lee regreted being in this and rightfully so. He could have had his pick of werewolf films so this being the one is kind of tragic.

Wrapped up another October viewing of The Shining (1980), and I always enjoy reading trivia and different takes on “what it all means”. I have only watched the mini-series from 1997 one time but don’t remember hating it. It’s funny, I tried to rewatch the DVD version from 1999 I’ve owned, wow, for 20 years, but its quality, not as much an issue at the time, just left me ejecting it for the remastered version that was part of the four-film Kubrick set I got in 2012. I don’t think any future experience will eclipse how I felt watching the film in 2016 in a theater. I wrote about it then after getting home, and as I write recall the exuberant excitement of just getting the opportunity FINALLY to see it as it should be seen. I did get to see 2001 (1968), also, and that experience, coupled with The Shining, Rear Window, Frankenstein/Bride of Frankenstein (in a double bill!), and Psycho (1960), are a series of delights I hold great appreciation for getting to witness in that theatrical setting. I did read that Spielberg was part of a 4K Ultra Blu release for the film I might consider adding to my library, but The Shining is all over the place if you have those channels that love to show it. And I see it on channels that typically don’t show this kind of content. If you haven’t seen The Shining, it is liable to be on the television during a Wednesday in February. ****/****

I almost named this thread for the week Discards but thought that might be a bit too negative since not all the films during this week were all that bad. So Miscellaneous it was.